07/17/21 Horn Day 3

We woke up to sunshine! Everything Tserka had was wet after his dip in the lake last night, plus all of our tents were soaked. We hand a leisurely morning of coffee and drying things. Since we had skipped dinner we had our Pad Thai for breakfast and once again the freeze dried meals were delicious.

We finally hit the “trail” around 11:30 am and for the next 3 1/2 miles we hiked through the worlds swampiest mountain side. I decided to just stay in my booties and crocs and it wasn’t that bad on my feet. Crocs aren’t great when traction is needed but the footing was soft and squishy. We skirted the lake, looking for the trail up and over, never seeing it. Steve allowed for a lunch stop when we were close to the end of the lake on a nice spot out of the wind.

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We made our own way up to the ridge line and eventually found some markers. They seemed to be leading us up to a dang near impassable ridge. Sure enough, that was what we had to do, up and over! Up is always easier for me, I don’t mind the exertion of climbing, albeit is slowly. We gained the top and the wind and the view was enough to knock us off our feet! As with the theme of this trip, going up means coming back down. Part way down we had our late afternoon ramen snack. A fox smelled the food and came around for a look. I thought we’d see more of them but the campsites so far have been in areas where summer houses are. After snack time we continued down and around the bowl, occasionally getting blown over by the wind gusts.

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Another short climb and hooray, we could see our campsite! Unfortunately it was still 3 1/2 miles away, almost of all of it downhill. I mentioned that up is easier for me. It doesn’t hurt in a way I can’t handle. Downhill for miles just causes my feet to feel like they are on fire. I think the worst it ever was was the Mt. Doom hike in NZ. Coming down the path back, the downhill here started to feel much the same. It finally flattened out a bit and we did our typical water crossing a mile out of camp.

I had thought I’d be walking into camp in my boots for the first time but no. We had one more cliff to navigate to get to the campsite. The Gaia trail hugged the ocean but a foot path headed up the cliff side. We went up almost 2/3 of the way but with the wind gusts and me in crocs, I bailed and opted for the ocean walk since the tide was out. I nice stroll in the cold North Atlantic actually felt nice on my sore feet, but it did burn the numerous small scrapes on my legs.

The Hlöduvik campsite is my favorite one so far, even with the crazy wind gusts. The creek is close for drinking water, the view of the ocean is amazing, and there aren’t any summer houses right nearby. We had our typical 10 pm dinner and cocoa and then I tried to sleep. This though was made problematic for two reasons. One, this was what the sky looked like at 11:15 pm, and two, as soon as I laid horizontally, my legs and feet started sending throbbing pains up and down. A restless night but I did manage a few hours of sleep.

Totals: 11.14 miles in 9:41 hrs (7:13 moving, 2:27 still) Gained 1792 ft, lost 1793 ft